Semiconductor technologies are continually progressing to smaller feature sizes, for example down to feature sizes of 65 nanometers, 45 nanometers, and below. A patterned photoresist (resist) layer used to produce such small feature sizes typically has a high aspect ratio. Maintaining a desired critical dimension (CD) can be very difficult for various reasons, especially for a resist layer with a high aspect ratio. For example, a loading effect of the resist layer may cause CD variation and degradation during a lithography patterning process.